Business is booming for open source adopters

Lee Curtis business development manager ICE Systems is the guest columnist for CRN issue 262.

For IT teams, it's not a case of having no budget. It is simply that they must get better value for money. They must invest to grow the business or save significant dollars.

To help us out, US-led IT vendors have raised their prices by 20 to 30 percent. They might keep their profits high, but where does that leave us?

As a result, many IT managers are struggling to deliver on their goals and their promises while making their dollars go much, much further.

They are looking for ways to reduce the vice-like grip that IT vendors have over their business agility and costs of ownership.

Many are working around the lock-ins that form the sales strategies of the mega-vendors. IT teams fear that vendors put shareholders before clients, locking away valuable data with proprietary software licenses and file formats.

What's needed is a more agile, cost-effective way to build, deploy and manage "must-have" IT projects. Step up, open source.

In many respects, the college years are over - it's time to get professional. The free loving, laissez faire community of open sourcers have been joined by sharp suits, savvy business cases and proven enterprise credentials.

Moreover, it used to be Linux and Apache that led the field in open source deployments - now it seems there is an open source option for just about everything.

In fact, looking under the hood of the big players, you'll often find open source. Today, many (or is that most?) of the big-ticket security and networking appliances are underpinned by Linux or BSD Unix.

Anyone heard of Apple? The ground-breaking, Vista-mocking OS X is powered by many open source components.

That's the same OS that runs on their servers, desktops and something they call the iPhone. That said, the iPhone itself is not open source, but built upon it.

Google has released the acclaimed Android mobile, while Symbian and Nokia have open sourced their mobile operating systems, too.

Meanwhile, open source vendor Red Hat is no longer alone; Novell has joined in, Oracle, too.

All three offer enterprise Linux support and software. The enterprise titans: Oracle, HP and IBM are developing, supporting, deploying and profiting from open source. It's a great business to be in.

And the software is free. How does that work? It's all about the value of a solution and the services that deliver it.

Even Microsoft's uber-partners Citrix have redesigned their strategy and marketing around "Xen" - the free VMware competitor.

In the field of SOA, business intelligence and workflow automation are disruptive forces bringing competitive advantages, rock-solid reliability, unrivalled flexibility and support assurances at a fraction of the cost.

These enterprise-class solutions are affordable for smaller firms that can now manage their IT with more sophistication than their giant competitors - after all, commercial alternatives run into millions of dollars in licensing, installation and maintenance fees.

How about VoIP? Or Unified Communications? Content management systems? Intranets? Enterprise search? All new, hot technologies, all available as mature open source.

Open source is attracting talent, investors, and perhaps, more importantly, it is winning over integrators and resellers who see it as a cheap way to solve client problems while keeping down their bill of materials.

In other words, it's very profitable to be a value-added integrator.

SugarCRM is free if you want to forgo professional support and a few funky features. Compiere and OpenBravo are maturing fast, and are aimed at the SMB/SME market.

What about Microsoft's Exchange? It is deeply embedded, but check out Yahoo's Zimbra if you want to see what Exchange could be.

You can see why the market leaders are prone to overreact with FUD: Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt about their own future.

Open source firms can go bust, but the software can be changed and supported by any willing party. Compare that with a proprietary firm who takes software, support and maybe critical data if they go under.

The nimble, creative and ambitious are harnessing technology to slash costs, break into new markets and magnify profits using software that they can change, support and adapt. There's nothing new there.

The wisest proponents of open source is that the enterprise ignores how the software was developed and instead focuses passionately on the business benefits.

After all, the open model is a compelling business case with a jaw-dropping ROI. For integrators then combining two or more components with a little customisation shows the business that you can deliver enormous value.

So what about your business? Are you already investing in open solutions and giving your business a fighting chance of thriving during the downturn?